Above Average Pittsburgh Pirates Blog

Mariners Could be Interested in Tony Watson

On Tuesday, Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune did an article regarding the Seattle Mariners need for a late inning left-handed reliever. One name that Dutton mentioned as a possibility was Tony Watson.

Over the last five seasons, Watson has been a fixture in the Pirates bullpen. During the 2014 season, a year in which he posted a 1.63 ERA along with a 222 ERA+, he became the first lefty reliever in franchise history to be named an All-Star. This past season, Watson wasn’t as lights out, but he did manage to put up an ERA+ of 137, which is still well above league average. He took over as the Pirates closer following the trade of Mark Melancon. Watson enters this offseason in his final year as an arbitration eligible, and is projected to make around $6 million.

The Pirates and Mariners weren’t strangers to making trades with one another this year. The first came in August with Arquimedes Caminero, while the other was in September involving Wade LeBlanc. Unlike those two deals however, the Mariners would obviously have to give up significantly more to obtain Watson.